France started banning most travel to and from non-European Union countries on Monday in hopes that this decision will help limit the impact of the more contagious COVID-19 variants that have been discovered in the United Kingdom, South Africa and elsewhere.
This has been deemed as mostly a preventative measure as government officials stated that infection rates are increasing at a slow pace within France.
The only people who will now be able to depart France for these destinations or enter from them must meet one of a number of exceptions, all of which require that proof of that situation being the case is shown.
These reasons are related to, for example, health, children visiting a parent, students starting school abroad or ending school in France and business that must be done in an in-person setting at this time. Also, those who are in France with a visa that is about to expire are allowed to depart the country.
Those who may depart and enter France, including people who meet those exceptions and all from other EU countries, must also show a negative COVID-19 test result that was taken within 72 hours of traveling and a signed form that communicates that the traveler has not knowingly been in contact with anyone diagnosed with this disease over the past two weeks.
Additionally, travelers entering France should quarantine for seven days and then get tested again after.
Travelers should also expect the process of getting through French border control to be significantly longer than is usually the case as, one by one, agents are carefully determining if a passenger can depart or enter France, including checking the validity of the documents that have been shown to them.
These then-upcoming regulations were announced on Friday.
Within France, no major changes have been implemented as President Emmanuel Macron has decided that his country should continue in a non-lockdown state, which contrasts with Germany and the United Kingdom. They have both recently entered lockdowns.
However, a curfew is in place in France from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., and large shopping centers that do not offer food options have been ordered to close. Also, the number of people who are allowed to shop in grocery stores at any given time has been further limited.
The country not entering a lockdown has received a significant amount of criticism from several French health professionals.
The main reason for this is that even though the recent daily increases in confirmed cases have been lower than when France last went into a nationwide lockdown in October, the corresponding COVID-19-related hospitalization rates are similar to that time period. Many are expecting both trends to worsen since the more contagious strains are already in the country.